The Hannington’s men’s softball team, sponsored by Canton Attorney Glen Hannington, enjoyed a banner first year in the Stoughton Men’s League, finishing at 16-2 overall and winning the league title and then a playoff championship.

According to Hannington’s player Greg Lyons, the opening round of the playoffs would prove to be a bit more competitive than anticipated. “But fortunately for us, after a slow start, we played some of our best softball during the semifinals and finals,” he said. “We drew the THOP Boys (4-14) in the first round and they proved to be a lot better than their record would have indicated, giving us a run for our money while playing stellar defense.”

Hannington’s came from behind to win the playoff opener 9-8 and then scored a 5-1 victory in game two to advance to the semifinals. For their semifinal opponent, Hannington’s drew the Sons of Italy, which has been one of the stronger team in the league for the past few years and handed Hannington’s one of its two regular season losses.

The Hannington’s defense shined in a 4-2 win in game one and then the bats came alive for a 13-6 win in game two. The Sons of Italy didn’t go down without a fight, however, as they came out on top of a back-and-forth game three, winning 9-8 to keep the series alive. Game four was another competitive, back-and-forth affair, but Hannington’s bats and defense proved to be too much as the team prevailed 13-11 to secure a trip to the finals.

In the first game against Public House in the championship series, Hannington’s turned five double plays en route to a 17-6 victory. Game two looked like it was heading in the same direction as Hannington’s jumped out to a 12-0 lead after the top of the first inning. However, Public House scraped and clawed its way back until eventually taking the lead late in the game and held on for the 24-23 win, evening the series at 1-1.

Game three was very similar to game one as Hannington’s got the bats going early and the defense shined again in an eventual 18-6 win. Then in game four, everything came together for Hannington’s. “We played our best game of the season,” said Lyons. “Hitting, pitching, and defense were all clicking, and the final result showed as we would go on to win 28-6 and wrap up the season and finals.”

Bill Murray and Jon Medeiros led the way on offense for Hannington’s, as each batted well north of .600 and combined for 50 hits and 33 runs throughout the playoffs. Medeiros, Matt Wedge, and Kevin O’Brien each had two homeruns during the playoffs as well.